Amateur Basket
by Jackie Wepps
Summary: I can't make a good summary so here comes the quick one. Kisumi and Hyuga meet and don't get along. Hyuga insults Kisumi and they make a bet that Kisumi has to make a team of amateur basket players and play against Seirin. Can he find a team? Will they win? (Read for more details)
1. Let's Meet Again

From Aida Riko to Shigino Kisumi

Hey Shigino-kun

I know it has been a while since you send your last email but I've been really busy lately. The basket team is doing well and we are winning a lot as of late. But I can't take my mind off it for a second.

I wonder if you have any suggestions to how I can improve the team's strength. I know it's a rare question from me, but I'm running a bit low on ideas lately.

How are things at your end? Are you still playing basket? It is too bad that I haven't seen your team lately on any plans of bigger events like Inter High or the Winter Cup. Why is that?

Please don't take as long on replying as I do. I hope to see you sometime soon.

Aida Riko

* * *

From Shigino Kisumi to Aida Riko

Hi Riko

Yeah it sure took you a while, but it's fine. I've been busy too. With the exams coming up and all, friends and girls too. It has taken up a lot of my time. I haven't really taken much checking my emails as of late. Sorry about that.

No sorry. I don't have any suggestions to what you can do to improve your team at the moment. I'm not playing basketball anymore because our team disbanded. We got defeated easily last year and none from my year except myself has felt like playing basket again this year, there are only bookworms among the first and second years too. It's doubtful you'll see me at any events.

But I've heard you made it far into the Winter Cup. Congratulations.

If you can give me the date of your next game I might just show up to cheer you guys on. That is, if you want to see me that badly.

Kisumi

* * *

From Aida Riko to Shigino Kisumi.

Hey Shigino-kun

That's actually a brilliant idea! It's not that I want to see you THAT badly, but it could still be fun seeing you again. Last we met, wasn't that also the first time when you visited your grandparents? No matter. It would be fun seeing you again. And I'd also like you to meet the basket team. Maybe they can give you back some spirit.

It's too bad that the others of your school don't feel like playing basket so that you had to disband. If you want, you could always transfer to Seirin High School. There's always room for one more at our team.

Here are the dates of our upcoming games _/_ _/_ _/_ and _/_. You can chose from these whichever suits you the better.

Just show up whenever you want. It'll be fun meeting again.

Aida Riko

* * *

 **So... This idea came when I had just started on watching Kuroko no Basket and had been liked Free for a short while. I had taken a slight interest in figuring out what kind of guy Kisumi was and so I went and read on his wiki. First thing I noticed, he used to play basketball. Then I came up with this thing.**

 **Beforehand I want to warn you that I had not read the High Speed 2nd volume and certainly not finished KnB since I actually wrote this in May or the beginning of June. I'm not sure, but around that time. I do not follow manga or anything.**

 **Another detail: I might have gotten Kisumi's personality a bit wrong along the way. Hope it's not too bad.**

 **This story is set around the time of Eternal Summer in Free and the year after the plot in KnB because I wanted to even out the difference between their ages.**

 **This story is also pretty random. I really hope you don't mind that.**

 **With that being said, try to bare with me being like this and try to make some sense of the story. If you have any questions about anything related to this story, feel free to leave a review or PM me and I will answer as best as I can.**

 **Jackie**


	2. Nice to Meet You

Shigino Kisumi found himself standing outside the building where the Inter High would be held this year. By his side, you could see a slightly taller guy with olive brown hair and green eyes. Tachibana Makoto didn't believe that he had agreed to this. He knew absolutely nothing about basketball. The only reason why he was here was because Kisumi had asked. He had asked Haruka too, but the blue eyed swimmer had declined the invitation, claiming that he'd rather spend his day off at the pool.

"Come on, Makoto!" Kisumi called, dragging Makoto along. "We're already late!"

Makoto was given no other choice but to follow his old friend into the huge building.

They had to stand at the back and watch the basketball games. Kisumi commented happily on everything happening during the game. He explained what was good moves and bad moves and explained the reason why everyone was doing what they were doing. Of course he couldn't cover all of it, but Makoto understood most, and did his best to keep up with the rest. It was interesting to see how eagerly Kisumi was talking about basketball.

The first quarter finished only five minutes after they arrived and Makoto found that now was the time to confront Kisumi with something he had been meaning to ask ever since he got the invitation to come along.

"Why did you even want to come watch the… Inter High?" He asked. He had just a bit difficulty remembering the name of these games, but was relieved that he managed to remember it correctly. Anything else would've been an insult.

"I've been chatting with a friend who is coaching the Seirin team," Kisumi said and nodded at the team, dressed in white, black and red. "

"I thought she was their manager?" Makoto asked. He had noticed the girl on the bench, but he really hadn't thought she was their coach.

"Be glad no one heard you say that, Makoto," Kisumi smiled. "She's really good at what she's doing. If she was the coach at my former high school team, they might not even have had to disband," A slight hint of sadness was shown in Kisumi's smile.

"So you don't play anymore?"

Kisumi just shook his head and the two teens fell silent until the second quarter began. This went on just like the first one had, with Kisumi explaining and Makoto listening. He was starting to get an idea of what it was all about, and to his own surprise, he found it more and more interesting for each passing minute. There was something in the air that made him all worked up and excited about the game and the second quarter only ended way too soon.

Kisumi picked out his phone and send a quick mail to Riko.

* * *

From Shigino Kisumi to Aida Riko

Hi Riko!

I'm here now, can we meet somewhere during this break?

* * *

Makoto watched as the girl on the bench picked up her phone and looked at it. She sat with her back turned to them, so he couldn't see her facial expression, but he heard Kisumi's phone make a sound as he received a reply.

Kisumi smiled and quickly looked up from his phone.

"Come on, Makoto," he said, leading the way out. Makoto had no other choice but to follow, he didn't feel like standing alone, some place where he didn't really feel like he belonged.

They were walking down a hallway and turned a corner and this was when Makoto saw Seirin's coach up close. Her hair was short and light brown, and her eyes were darker brown and they had a serious look to them, yet a smile was playing on her lips as she saw Kisumi.

"Riko!" Kisumi waved his hand as he walked just a bit faster, the last of the way up to the girl.

"I never gave you permission to call me that, Shigino-kun," the girl sighed.

"Aww why not? Would you rather I call you Riko-chan?" Kisumi teased.

Makoto picked just that second to blink, so he didn't see what happened, but he heard the sound of something hard, collide with a face, and Kisumi's loud yelp. When he opened his eyes again, Kisumi's right hand was on his cheek, covering a bruise.

"Kisumi!" Makoto uttered surprised and hurried up to the other male. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kisumi smiled.

"Who are you?" Riko's eyes landed on Makoto, who suddenly felt really awkward by being there.

"Uh… eh…," Makoto pulled himself together. "I'm Tachibana Makoto, I went to middle school with Kisumi, it's nice to meet you," he bowed slightly at Riko.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Aida Riko," Riko answered. "Do you have an interest in basketball, Tachibana-kun?" she asked.

"Not really," Makoto said. "I prefer swimming,"

"Shigino-kun, please control your friendliness and be more like Tachibana-kun," Riko demanded, causing Makoto to blush slightly.

A boy in Seirin's uniform walked up behind Riko and stood beside her. He was wearing glasses and also seemed serious.

"Oi, Riko," he said. "Weren't you supposed to talk to the team?"

"I'll be there in a bit. I'm just saying hi to an old friend," Riko said. "Just go back, Hyuga-kun,"

"You play on Seirin's team!" Kisumi said before Hyuga managed to retreat. He reached forward and grabbed the other boy's hand. "I saw you at the first half. You're an incredible shooter!"

Hyuga just looked confused at Kisumi. He didn't know what to do first, ask him who he was, or thank him for the compliment, or maybe just pull away. He decided on the last of the options and pulled his hand back.

"Thank you," he said coldly.

"Oh I'm sorry," Kisumi smiled. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Shigino Kisumi. I've heard a bit about you from Riko," he said.

Hyuga just nodded. He send Makoto a glance and was about to turn around when Kisumi decided to introduce his friend as well.

"This is Tachibana Makoto, he's a friend of mine," he said.

"That wasn't what I was wondering about," Hyuga mumbled. "I was wondering how you know so much of basketball when you seem like an idiot,"

Kisumi took the insult lightly. "I've been in the basketball club ever since Junior High," he said.

"I'd like to see that," Hyuga almost sounded like he didn't believe it.

"Is that a challenge?" Makoto was surprised to see a smirk on Kisumi's face.

"After this game, two on two," Hyuga said as he turned around and headed back down the hallway.

"You've got it!" Kisumi yelled after him, the smirk slowly turning into a grin. "It's gonna be nice playing again," he said in a lower voice.

Makoto's face had stiffened in shock. "Kisumi…" he mumbled.

"Come on Makoto, Riko needs to go," Kisumi said before dragging Makoto along, back towards the hall. "See you Riko!" he waved.

"See you, Aida-san," Makoto managed to pull a smile and wave at Riko too. The girl waved back at them.

* * *

 **Flowering Lotus** **: Thank you so much for reviewing! I never thought... OMG I'm so happy! Thank you! The idea doesn't go as you imagine though, sorry. Yours sound fun too.**


	3. I'll Bet on It

Seirin won the game. There were some excitement in the third quarter where the two teams were tied almost all the way through, but at the final quarter Seirin managed to take control of the game. Makoto paid attention to the entire game. He hoped he could pick up some moves. He didn't manage to enjoy it anymore though, because the lump of nervousness down his stomach made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Why am I even playing this, I don't know the first thing about basketball," Makoto said as he followed Kisumi outside to a court. Kisumi had found a basketball in his bag now and was holding it under his arm.

"Don't worry, I'll teach you the basics. But you're strong, Makoto. It shouldn't be that difficult to get most of it down by the time the Seirin team gets here," Kisumi smiled faithfully. "Let's play some One-on-one,"

Makoto wondered what One-on-one meant the rest of the way to the court. Here Kisumi would teach him the basics about basketball and then they started playing.

Makoto scored and defended, but he had the feeling Kisumi was going really easy on him

They were taking a break from their practice when the Seirin team got there.

"Are you ready?" Hyuga asked as he approached them.

Kisumi got up. "Hey! Took your time!" he smiled.

Makoto got up as he saw another boy separate from the others and walk up to Hyuga. He was surprisingly enough, even shorter than Hyuga who had been the shortest of the three so far.

"So these are the matchups?" Kisumi asked.

Hyuga nodded.

"Hey!" Kisumi smiled at the new guy. "I'm Shigino Kisumi, I look forward to this," he introduced himself.

"I'm Tachibana Makoto, nice to meet you," Makoto greeted the new guy politely.

"I'm Izuki Shun. It's nice to meet you guys too," the new one said.

"Makoto could I talk to you for a sec before we start?" Kisumi asked.

"I think Hyuga-kun wants to start now…" Makoto said, reading Hyuga's expression correctly.

"You might need to discuss a tactic," Hyuga answered though. "Izuki-kun and I will do the same,"

Kisumi pulled Makoto to one basket while Hyuga and Izuki stood under the other and whispered to each other as the others couldn't hear. Kisumi leaned in and whispered too. "You see a benefit for us?" he asked. He obviously knew the answer himself, he just wanted to make sure Makoto had understood.

"They're both shorter than us," he said.

Kisumi nodded and smiled. "But we do have a disadvantage with you being new to the sport and all, and we are not dressed for this,"

Makoto nodded, getting the facts.

"What will you rather play? Since it's two-on-two we can play with one on offence and one on defense," Kisumi said.

Makoto nodded. "I guess I'd rather play on defense, but I don't really mind,"

"Perfect!" Kisumi smiled. "I'd rather play offence myself so it's no trouble,"

They went to the middle of the court at the same time and Riko, who had promised to judge on the game to see if both parts played fair, came there as well and gave up the ball.

Kisumi jumped up and got the ball for himself and Makoto, and ran up to the opposite end. Makoto ran a bit of the distance as well, not really sure what to do with himself. Both Izuki and Hyuga ran after Kisumi who took off to throw the ball up in the basket, but before he could do so, Hyuga jumped up in front of him and attempted to block the ball. Kisumi noticed what he was up to.

"Makoto!" he yelled, and Makoto hurried up and caught the ball from Kisumi. He then ran forward while dribbling, and had Izuki steal the ball from him.

Makoto turned and ran back after Izuki, to get in place and defend the basket. He was glad he had longer legs than the other and by that managed to gain on him a little. He picked up the speed as Izuki stopped to shoot and ran up to block it. He took off in a jump as the ball left Izuki's hands and Makoto reached out. But he didn't catch it. It fell into the basket, and as Makoto fell back down he got his head under the basket and was hit in the head by the ball. This caused him to lose balance when he hit the ground and he fell down on his knees.

"Makoto!" Kisumi stood still on the middle of the court.

Makoto smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Kisumi," he said as he rubbed his head where the ball had hit him. It didn't hurt much. It was just as much because he was surprised that he got hit.

"Don't apologize," Kisumi said.

Makoto got back on his feet and went to get the ball. He dribbled up to Kisumi and passed to him and Kisumi managed to score. They continued for a while longer until once, while defending, Makoto bumped into Hyuga and caused both of them to fall over. The score at that time was 9 – 4 to Team Hyuga, as Kisumi called it. They would play until one team had scored 10 points. Team Hyuga had gotten one three point shot and three normal shots while Team Kisumi had only got two normal shots.

Now Makoto and Hyuga were lying on the ground, their legs all tangled up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hyuga snapped.

"I'm really sorry!" Makoto yelled struggling to get free. Hyuga helped himself and managed a lot better than Makoto did.

"Do you even know how to play basket?" Hyuga snorted as he got up on his feet.

Makoto sat down, and looked shamefully down at his lap. "N-No…" he mumbled. He sensed the anger of the other, and just wished he could go home right then and there.

"I'm not gonna continue the game then," Hyuga said.

"Makoto!" Kisumi hurried up to his old friend. "I'm really sorry," he said.

Makoto looked up and put on his best smile. "It's fine," he said.

"No it's not, I shouldn't have dragged you into this!" Kisumi said. "I could've just demanded a one-on-one,"

"No you shouldn't have dragged him into this," Hyuga agreed. "You may be good at basketball, Shigino, but you can't teach anyone anything. Not even an amateur like Tachibana,"

Kisumi turned away from his friend in a flash to face Hyuga. He felt the anger start boiling in his chest, something that happened so rarely, he usually forgot what anger felt like before he felt it again.

"I'll show you I can teach basketball to others," he snapped. "You said it yourself, Makoto is an amateur. That's the only reason why it's going so badly." He said.

"How do you plan on showing us?" Hyuga asked, clearly feeling he had the upper hand.

"I'll find more people like Makoto," Kisumi said. "More athletics who does other sports than basketball and then I'll teach them,"

"And how will you prove they've learned?" Hyuga asked, now more curiously.

Kisumi thought it over. "We'll have a match. Amateurs vs Seirin High School Basketball Team,"

"That's a great challenge," Riko approved. "I'll give you two benefits then," she smiled at Kisumi before giving them. "I allow you to play on the team as well as the amateurs, along with that, I'll assist you on selecting people for the team that I think can make it strong. It will still be your job to teach them, and perhaps get a coach," she said.

Hyuga nodded. "That sounds fair enough," he said. "We'd like to have some challenge at least,"

Kisumi nodded. "How much time do I have?" he asked.

Riko thought it over. "Two weeks, then you'll have all your member and be at Seirin High School. There I will inspect them,"

Kisumi nodded. "How long until the game?" he asked.

"It has to be past the Inter High," Hyuga said. "We need to focus on that,"

Kisumi looked at Makoto. "Is there any big event you'd like to have over before the games?" he asked.

"That depends on if we make it to Nationals," Makoto answered. "If we do, we'd rather have them over before the game,"

"What Nationals?" A boy from Seirin with a face like a cat asked.

"Swimming Nationals," Makoto answered, smiling for real this time.

"We'll figure it out once I've selected the team's starting members," she said.

"Nice Riko!" Kisumi said. "Well, we should get going. There's a long way from Tokyo and home,"

They all said goodbye and Makoto and Kisumi went to the closest train station to head home. As they walked Makoto remembered a question that he forgot to ask Kisumi a bit earlier today.

"Who do you plan on asking to join the team?" he asked.

"Are you joining?" Kisumi asked instead of answering.

"Yeah," Makoto said. "After what Hyuga-kun said earlier I actually feel like showing him that I can improve,"

"Okay," Kisumi said. "Then I plan on asking Sousuke, Rin and Haru," he said. "And if you guys could introduce me to some more people I guess we can have someone for the bench,"

"I'm not sure Haru is gonna join willingly," Makoto said. "And even if he joins, Sousuke's not gonna join, they don't get along too well,"

Kisumi just smiled. "I could find ways to convince Sousuke despite Haru being there, and if I ever get in trouble, I got Rin. You just take care of Haru,"

Makoto smiled too, despite knowing that taking care of Haruka would be much easier said than done when it came to choosing basketball over swimming. But he would be good to have on the team, and Sousuke would have his height as an advantage too. As reserve member Rei would be good to have too. It wasn't 100% sure he would get it all down because he would want to make everything perfect, but what he got perfectly would be of great use. Nagisa on the other hand would most likely work better as a guy on the bench and only get in when it was absolutely necessary. No doubt he would take the game seriously, eventually.


	4. Will You Join Our Team?

"Come on Haru," Makoto begged as he and Haruka walked the last bit of the way up to Samezuka Academy. Nagisa and Rei were right behind them, both eagerly following the discussion.

Haruka sighed. He had already answered the request more times than he could count. It wasn't worth bothering to answer anymore. Makoto knew it already.

They entered the entrance to Samezuka Academy and found Rin, talking to Kisumi who had most likely been asking Rin the same question as Makoto had asked Haruka all day. Both were wearing a smile though.

"Hey Makoto, you on the basketball team too?" Rin asked as he saw the approaching group.

"I am" Makoto smiled.

"What about you Haru?" Rin asked.

Haruka shook his head. "I only care for swimming," he said.

"Typical Haru," Rin mumbled, causing Haruka to narrow his eyes.

"Ah you two!" Kisumi noticed Rei and Nagisa. "Would you agree to join the team? I'm fine with anyone, but I somehow feel like they should know each other so it would be great if you could join," Kisumi only took a short time to breath "You're on Makoto's swim team isn't that right?"

Rei stood still, completely taken by surprise by this overly friendly guy, but Nagisa had no trouble keeping up.

"Both me and Rei-chan?" he asked

"Yeah, both of you!" Kisumi said.

"Then why do you need me?" Haruka asked.

Kisumi turned to Haruka. "Because I want to win against Hyuga," he said. "I can't think of anyone who would be better at learning than you,"

"You'll have to make do without me," he said before turning away and heading towards the Samezuka pool.

Makoto send Kisumi and apologizing look. "It has been his answer all day," he said.

Kisumi smiled. "Well, if he's not gonna go willingly, I'm ready to try force… but I don't know how," he said.

"That's no problem, Kisu-chan, I know plenty!" Nagisa smiled and it somehow seemed kinda evil, but no one noticed that because of what he said.

Rin burst out laughing and Makoto did his very best to fight back a giggle while Kisumi looked confused at first and then extremely irritated and embarrassed.

"Please don't call me Kisu-chan," he begged the blonde boy.

Things got settled. Rei and Nagisa would join the team along with Rin, and Rin would recruit more teammates for them. He knew just who to ask besides Sousuke. Furthermore they were told to say that Haruka was already on the team.

* * *

It was the exact date of when Kisumi was supposed to meet Riko at Seirin High School. But Haruka wasn't aware of this fact as Nagisa, Rei and Makoto knocked on his door that morning. Haruka opened. He had already gotten out of the bathtub and had just finished making his usual mackerel when they arrived.

"Hey Haru," Makoto smiled warmly like the sunlight outside. "You wanna come with us to Seirin High School?"

Haruka send Makoto a wondering glare meaning: "what are we gonna do there?" Nagisa was the one who answered the question though.

"We're gonna sign up as Kisu-chan's basketball team," he informed.

"Well, that goes for everyone except you," Makoto said.

"I don't want to go," Haruka said.

"That's too bad," Nagisa smiled. "I think Kisu-chan said the pool at the school would be open on this Saturday unlike ours,"

Haruka left the door to go swallow his mackerel and get dressed. Within five minutes he was standing by the door, all set and ready to go. Nagisa couldn't wipe the smirk off his face.

They met with Rin, Sousuke, Momo and Ai on the train station. Kisumi came shortly after. To everyone's surprise, he was walking with Gou and they were talking about something that sounded like training.

"Kisumi, what's my sister doing here?" Rin asked.

Kisumi looked at Gou like it was only now he noticed how much she resembled Rin. "I met her on the way here, I knew she was the manager of Iwatobi's swim team so I asked her if she'd want to coach us because she might have some good ideas,"

"That's not part of the challenge," Makoto said. "Aren't you going against the rules?"

Kisumi seemed awfully calm though. "Relax, she's just gonna blow a whistle once I've taught you guys the basics," Kisumi assured them.

"Gou-san!" Momo yelled but before he could run up to bother Gou, the train arrived and Rin dragged him by the collar into the train followed by everyone else.

* * *

Riko was standing outside Seirin High School, greeting them and leading them into the gym. The boys from the smaller town were surprised that the entire Seirin basketball team was lined up by one wall. They had all come to watch to see if it was going to be fair. Riko would be able to see if there were any basketball players among the group whose name wasn't Shigino Kisumi.

"Okay, line up over there," Riko pointed to the opposite wall of the basketball team and all the boys did as she said. Gou stood still for a bit, before deciding to sit with the Seirin team, keeping a slight distance to them. Or so she thought until someone started speaking to her.

"Are you gonna help those guys out later?"

Gou almost jumped to the ceiling as she became aware of the boy's presence. She hadn't noticed him a minute ago.

"Y-yes… when did you get here?" she asked.

"I've been here all along," he said.

Gou blinked a couple of times before deciding to leave the conversation at that. She would like to watch what happened.

The amateur boys were now lined up and Riko was inspecting all of them carefully right now before she smiled and looked at everyone, meeting their eyes.

"Alright, take off your clothes," Riko demanded, shocking all the boys except Haruka who just took them off, revealing the swimsuit he was wearing.

Makoto face-palmed as he saw this. Why hadn't he seen that coming, while Kisumi's jaw dropped almost to the floor as he leaned closer to Makoto and spoke in a hushed voice.

"Why is Haruka wearing his swimsuit, what did you tell him?" he asked.

Makoto turned back. "That the pool would be open,"

"Well, I'm waiting!" Riko said impatiently.

Rin was the next to pull it together and undress. He was thankfully not wearing a swimsuit under his clothes. The others followed after he was done undressing.

Riko inspected their bodies once more and nodded until she reached Sousuke and stopped, her eyes fixated on his shoulder.

"I'm not sure I'll allow you to play," she said.

"WHAT!" Kisumi stepped forward. "But you said you'd pick out the best, Riko!"

Riko nodded. "I did say that. But his shoulder is hurt and it would be bad if I allowed him to play,"

"It's not that bad," Sousuke said. "It'll be fine soon,"

Riko narrowed her eyes at him. "If you by soon, mean at least five years, then I agree,"

"I'm gonna play," Sousuke said.

"Fine," Riko sighed, giving up easily. "But don't complain to me and say I didn't warn you when you can't do whatever other sport you're doing, which I assume is swimming,"

"How did you know? Riko-chan?" Nagisa asked.

 _And I thought Shigino-kun was overly friendly._ Riko thought. "I can see the exact condition your body is in and your potential. You're all making amazing swimmers, some of you are still developing, though I'm not sure how you will do in basketball," she said.

"But Riko, how will the team look?" Kisumi asked.

Riko looked down at the list of names that Kisumi had given her as they arrived. It showed every name and gave a short explanation on what they looked like. It would save them the presentations.

"Well, of course it'll be you, Shigino-kun, and Tachibana-kun too. Matsuoka-kun too, Nanase-kun, and Yamasaki-kun, if he really insists that he can play. If he is to back down, I recommend Ryugasaki-kun," she said.

Everyone nodded, except Haruka who send Riko a confused look. "I didn't sign up for this," he said.

"Your name is on the list, Nanase-kun," Riko said.

Haruka glared at Kisumi, until he noticed Makoto was shaking his head and pointing at Nagisa instead, which only changed the direction of Haruka's glare.

"Kisu-chan really wanted you to join, Haru-chan," Nagisa explained, unaffected by the glare.

"And I'm afraid it's too late now," Riko said. She exchanged a look with Kisumi. "Why is he so important that you'd trick him into doing this?" she asked.

"Haru's good at practically everything he does. I can't think of a thing he is not good at. He's a fast learner too and then I figure that he and Makoto could give the team a further advantage," Kisumi smiled happily. He walked up and wrapped an arm around Haruka's shoulders. "Besides, I want to play with my old schoolmate,"

Haruka pushed Kisumi off.

"Haru, can I make it up to you by saying that if we beat Seirin, with you on the team, they'll challenge us at swimming afterwards and be the amateurs,"

"I don't care," Haruka said as he walked away, forgetting everything about his clothes and making his way to the pool, which he found incredibly easily.

"Where did he go off to?" Hyuga asked Makoto as the latter got dressed.

"I bet you can check the pool and find out,"

"Can he even find his way over there?" Hyuga asked.

Makoto held back a giggle. "Haru smells water like a normal person smells food,"

"Well, we need to get going," Kisumi said. "Riko and I agreed on a day after both Inter High, basketball tournament and Nationals, swimming tournament,"

"I'll go get Haru," Makoto said before heading out to recover his friend from the pool. It took a bit of time because Haruka simply refused to go out of the water, but Makoto managed somehow and they were able to head home less than ten minutes later

* * *

 **Flowering Lotus:** **I plan on updating every day so far. It's not that difficult since I wrote this story a while ago. It's already complete, but not published yet. I'm glad youre so happy about it.**

 **Thank you to those of you who are taking the time to read this story!**

 **Jackie**


	5. Let's Get Started

Kisumi blew the whistle. He had grown tired of seeing everyone practice with the balls. They had been training dribbling around and shooting, attempting to hit the basket so far. In some cases it had been successful. Sousuke, Rin and Rei had hit the basket countless times while Makoto had also managed fine. Nagisa and Momo had also hit a couple of times while Ai and Haruka hadn't hit even once.

"Ai!" Kisumi called out. "Your shots are weak,"

"I'm sorry!" Ai answered.

Kisumi just smiled. "Stop apologizing," he said. "And Haru, start trying,"

Haruka didn't even respond to that. He thought it was more than obvious that he didn't want to do this at all. He'd much rather spend his time at the pool, or at least in his bathtub.

"In any case, Gou has studied up on the rules and should be ready to run them over with you now,"

Gou stepped forward and explained the rules of basketball. There were a lot and Kisumi could tell it was far too much for most. Haruka's face was the only one that kept looking the same as always, but that didn't mean anything, because Kisumi couldn't read Haruka like Makoto could.

"Okay," Kisumi said when Gou was done. "Try to remember as much as you can and we'll take the rest when we get to it," he said.

Everyone nodded, obviously more relieved at this point.

Then Kisumi started teaching them about offence and defense. It was much more difficult to do, but he managed. He had one player run for the basket and the other would attempt to stop him. Most was benched through this practice, but he could at least have two pairs on at the same time. Makoto did really great on defense and so did both Sousuke and Rin. Rei wasn't too good. Nagisa managed to confuse him completely by distracting him while making fakes all the time. Momo wasn't good on defense either and it was the same for Ai. The only one who did worse than those two was Haruka, who just stood and simply let his opponent pass by.

"Okay that's enough," Kisumi demanded. "We have to get some kind of a play going on now," He counted. "Nine people…" he mumbled. "Four on four, I'll watch the game," He said.

Everyone nodded and split into teams. It just so happened to be 3rd years against the rest. They were to shoot and defend as well as they could. They all did great. Well, everyone except Haruka, who was just standing still, did great.

"Haru, Get moving!" Rin demanded as he dribbled by Haruka who was simply just standing by the basket that they were to defend. Nagisa had just managed to score on Haruka's watch.

Momo got the ball from Rin and passed it to Rei who attempted to shoot, but his ball went too low to even get close to the basket and flew towards Haruka's head.

It stopped midair, right before Haruka's face. Nothing happened. The gym, which they were practicing in, fell silent for a couple of moments, until Haruka let the ball drop down as he held it in his hands.

"Those reflexes are amazing Haru-chan!" Nagisa smiled widely, breaking the silence.

"Are you okay, Haruka-senpai?" Rei asked concerned.

Haruka just nodded at this. He had managed to stop the ball just in time before it hit his face. It had blown his cover, but he hadn't had the time to move before he noticed the ball and didn't feel like needing an icepack on his face and have everyone worry about him.

Kisumi noticed this and quickly realized that Haruka was just pretending to be bad. He didn't know for what reason though, but he knew someone who most likely did.

"Makoto, can we speak for a sec?" he asked, waving at Makoto.

"Sure," Makoto smiled and followed Kisumi to the furthest corner of the gym.

"So," Kisumi started. "Why do you think Haru is pretending to be so bad at basket and not participating at all?" he turned his head to look at Haruka in the same time. Gou had taken up the part of judging and had removed Nagisa from the play. Haruka was still doing nothing.

"I don't know…" Makoto watched the game too. "Maybe he just doesn't like being forced into doing this?" he suggested. "He hasn't told me and all I can read is that he doesn't want to do this,"

"This is too bad," Kisumi mumbled. "I really want to make a perfect team and Haru belongs on it,"

Makoto nodded. "I'm aware of that," he said. "And I too can tell he is a good player if he just wants to, I just don't know how we should make him do it,"

Kisumi nodded. "Let's try figuring something out as soon as possible," he said before heading back to the game.

* * *

Days went by and Haruka still refused to play. He didn't even try. Kisumi and Gou were planning a training camp along with Makoto and Rin. It wasn't an easy task to figure out where to go and where there would be room and Kisumi ended up calling Riko for advice.

"It's Aida Riko," Riko said as she picked up the phone.

"Hey Riko, it's Kisumi here," Kisumi said. "Could I ask for your help with something?"

"Depends on what it is," Riko said. "Go ahead, but if it goes against the rules of the bet, then I'm not helping out,"

"We're planning a training camp and we can't seem to find a place that covers our needs, that'll be an OK place to stay and a gym nearby," Kisumi explained. "And if you may, I have a player who doesn't want to play and I don't know what to do with that,"

"That is troublesome, Let me guess, is it Nanase-kun?" Riko asked.

"Yeah," Kisumi said.

"I can't help you much on that, but I know someone who just might want to do that. The condition is that you will have someone from Seirin watching over you too,"

"I can accept that, what about a training place?" Kisumi asked.

"I know a good place that we have used for training camps as well, I'll mail you a link as soon as we hang up here," Riko answered. "I don't think the rules says that I can't help you with this,"

"Thanks a bunch Riko!" Kisumi couldn't wipe the smile off his face. They hung up shortly after, and after Kisumi received the mail from Riko they were able to finish planning the training camp.

* * *

 **Flowering Lotus: Thanks. I'm glad you liked that last chapter so much. I personally just find it random (the entire story seems random to me) About your comment on your first review. I already knew you meant it that way. No worries. :)**

 **I think this chapter was fairly short, especially compared to the previous ones, so I'm sorry about that.**

 **Jackie**


	6. On Training Camp

Outside the hotel, two people were waiting, though until the second one greeted them, they only noticed the first one, a girl with pink hair and pink eyes.

"Hello," the boy with no presence said.

Gou jumped slightly but then smiled. "Kisumi did mention they'd send someone. I didn't expect it to be you though,"

"I won't be here if Tetsu-kun wasn't here," the girl said, smiling at the boy while squeezing his arm a bit.

"Stop doing that, Momoi-san," Kuroko said in a plain tone and the girl – Momoi – stopped squeezing.

"I assume you're the one to help us out, Momoi-san," Kisumi answered with a friendly smile. "I'm the team captain, Shigino Kisumi, that's our manager, Matsuoka Gou, and the rest are players," He thereby presented them one by one.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Momoi answered. "I'm Momoi Satsuki,"

"Satsuki-san!" Momo said. "I'm Mikoshiba Momotaro," he presented himself while stepping way too close to Momoi. He then went on about everything he liked and all his hobbies, like he had done to Gou a thousand times.

Gou smirked. She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy watching Momo try hitting on others. She felt great that she wasn't the only one he would torture with his presence and endless babbling.

"Well, we already checked in for you," Kuroko said and handed the keys to Kisumi, who handed out the keys to everyone. They were sharing rooms two and two, to make things as cheap as possible for everyone. Gou and Momoi were sharing a room, they were the only ones who didn't have a choice, but the boys got to select who they wanted to share a room with. When that was over with, they went to drop off their bags and then headed to the gym.

They played at the gym for a while and Momoi and Kuroko watched the play. Kisumi took part in the play now and Gou was watching for fouls, scorings and time.

"Haru," Kisumi tried passing to Haruka, and he caught the ball, but didn't do anything else but just stand there, holding the ball between his hands.

Gou blew the whistle. "Haruka-senpai you may not just hold the ball like that and not pass, nor dribble nor shoot, at least not if you want to learn," she said.

"I don't," Haruka said then threw the ball to Makoto, who caught it with no surprise, despite it being sudden. Momoi took notes to this.

Kisumi sighed and they continued to play the game. It finished shortly after and the main team lost. Momoi walked up with all her observations.

"I see Aida-san 'barely-B' made some great observations when picking the starting team," she said. "Yamasaki-san, your shoulder is obviously troubling you, be careful or it could become a huge hindrance in your development, furthermore you have great shots, practice them to improve them further, Matsuoka-san, same goes for you about the shots, you have better chances of improving though," she said. "Shigino-san, practice everything, but especially your threes needs a focus, because that is what the team lacks most, and Tachibana-san, you're doing great, but focus on playing more with Nanase-san. Nanase-san, just start playing, I can tell that you can do it, but I can't judge you from nothing at all,"

"Haru doesn't seem to want to play…" Makoto said.

Momoi narrowed her eyes. Somehow she really wanted Haruka to play soon. It bothered her that he didn't want to play and she intended to see what he could do. "Tetsu-kun, I want to have you play with the first-second-year team," she said.

"Okay," Kuroko walked up to the other team to play with them as the 5th man.

"Let's start another game," Gou demanded, and so they did. Kuroko used his misdirection as he would do in a normal play. He didn't use it as much however, only when it was absolutely needed.

"Hey Haru," Rin said as he ran by Haru for defense of the approaching Kuroko.

"What?" Haruka looked at Rin for a brief second.

"What do you say that we try stopping Kuroko together?" Rin asked with a smile on his face, like he knew with Haruka that they could do it.

"Why would I?" Haruka asked.

Rin sighed. He had seen right through Haruka from the first day. All he had wanted to do was get in Kisumi's way for having him on the team, and because chances were they had some kind of story from middle school. However, Rin had an idea of how to trigger Haruka's will to play.

"Because if you do, I'll buy you mackerel, and for each time we win I'll buy you mackerel too," Rin said.

"My life is not all about mackerel. Water is also included," Haruka said.

"Then let's say that if we beat Seirin and help Kisumi win his bet, I'll let you have the Samezuka pool all to yourself for a full 24 hours?" Rin suggested.

Haruka didn't say he would agree, but his actions changed remarkably after that little conversation. He ended up helping Rin stopping Kuroko, even if it was next to impossible at first, and he started actually playing. Everyone was impressed at how good he was. He even used his and Makoto's wordless conversations to communicate with him, which made their strategies impossible to predict unless you could read their movements.

* * *

 **And I thought the last chapter was short? I should learn to stop giving my own opinion on the length of the chapters. I always end up being wrong anyway. Silly, huh? I think so.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.**

 **Jackie**


	7. Is This Love?

Rin placed his hands on his knees. It was late. They had been training hard all week and tomorrow would be their last day here. Everyone on the team were about to find their rightful position. It was more difficult than it had seamed when Kisumi gave them this task three days ago. Rin had absolutely no idea what he was doing half the time, but he made a lot of shots, that was for sure, the ball just came to him from God knows where and he would catch and shoot, sometimes he would do what Kisumi and Kuroko called a dunk… hold on, Momoi called it that too, didn't she?

Both Kuroko and Momoi had been with them all week. They had been a great help in practice, and great company outside. They both got along with everyone, or were it the other way around? Rin wasn't sure. He was sure that it would be difficult to face Kuroko when they were playing against Seirin later this year.

"Kisumi!" Makoto called. "We need a break,"

Kisumi had noticed too. It wasn't only Rin who was out of breath and stamina. Everyone had run out. Only he and Kuroko remained because they were used to use their bodies this way. "Gou, Satsuki, go get some water for everyone," he demanded. "It's getting late, let's have dinner,"

Nobody responded, but Makoto smiled in approval as the only one. The rest of them were too exhausted to think to do that.

Gou and Momoi handed out water to everyone and they all drank before heading out to shower. Haruka was first to finish of course, and went to make dinner. Due to strict orders from everyone but Makoto, he kept the food variable, meaning that he hadn't made grilled mackerel at all this entire week, not even for himself.

"Meat again?" Makoto asked, as he entered the kitchen they had been using all week.

Haruka nodded. "Momoi-san says it's good for our bodies, and Gou agrees,"

"You don't have to do everything they say," Makoto said. "It's not like you, Haru,"

Haruka nodded. "I feel like doing it though," he said.

"Then I'm not saying anything," Makoto pulled out a chair and sat down. He watched as Haruka continued to cook.

Momoi entered the kitchen with Momo in toe. He had been following her allover all week except when going to bed and such, and during training. He was still blabbering about everything and anything he could think of and Momoi hadn't told him to leave her alone yet. This had impressed everyone.

"Can I help you, Nanase-san?" Momoi asked. This was something she had asked every night, though Haruka's answer remained the same.

"No thanks," he said.

At this, Momoi left and Momo followed her, and then Gou entered the room, dropping down on a chair next to Makoto. She stared down at the table. Makoto turned to her, sensing a slightly gloomy aura.

"Is something the matter, Gou?" he asked.

"It's nothing," Gou said, still looking down. She had gotten more and more like this all week, for each passing hour it would get just a tiny bit worse. Not even Rin had noticed this change enough to bother asking what was wrong. Makoto was the first to even give it some thought.

"It doesn't seem that way," Makoto stated.

Gou looked away before she started talking. "Momoi-san is annoying," she said, "and Momotaro-kun too,"

"Why?" Makoto asked.

Gou looked in the direction the two had disappeared to ensure they weren't walking in on them, and then she spoke up again. "I know it may sound weird, but I miss having Momotaro-kun around, crying 'Gou-san' all the time. I miss that he talks to me and pays way too much attention to me. I miss his talk about disgusting bugs and all the other meaningless things he said," she paused, and both Makoto and Haruka, who had also started listening to Gou's words, knew something more was coming. "Momoi-san is annoying with the way she says my boobs are small and says the same about Aida-san's, the way she speaks and acts, I don't really like her,"

"You seem to get along fine,"

Everyone's heads snapped to the opposite direction, even Haruka's, and noticed Kuroko standing in the doorway. He had been listening to everything Gou had told them.

"Why didn't you make us aware you were here, I didn't want you to hear this, Kuroko-kun," Gou said irritated.

"I'm sorry," Kuroko said. "I just thought the time was wrong to make you aware I was here," he said.

Makoto smiled. "It can't be helped now," he said, trying to make Gou relax again.

The girl nodded and actually did start relaxing while signaling to Kuroko that he could sit with them if he wanted. Kuroko accepted the silent invitation.

"To get back on topic," Gou said and now looked at Kuroko, "What makes you think Momoi-san and I are getting along fine?"

"I never hear you argue," he said.

"We don't," Gou said. "I just don't like her,"

"If you got over the issue with Mikoshiba-kun I'm sure you'd make great friends," Kuroko said.

"Maybe you should start by figuring out what your thoughts about him are?" Makoto advised. "You seem to be confused about your feelings,"

Gou shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "When he's around me he's annoying, but when he's around Momoi-san he is just as bad if not worse,"

"You like him," Haruka said.

"Who would like him?" Gou asked, denying the statement.

"You," Haruka answered.

"What makes you say that, Haruka-senpai?" Gou asked, crossing her arms.

"You're jealous of Momoi-san," Haruka said.

Makoto smiled. Now that Haruka mentioned it, he could tell that as well. Gou really was jealous of Momoi.

"I'm not,"

"We should leave the subject alone for now," Kuroko said. "The others are coming,"

Everyone nodded and nobody mentioned anything about Momo, Momoi or Gou the rest of the night. Nobody seemed to notice either, that a few of them were exchanging looks whenever Momo would try to flirt with Momoi.

After dinner, Momoi went outside to speak to Kuroko alone and they sat down on a bench outside the gym, just the two of them together.

"You wanted to talk, Momoi-san?" Kuroko asked her.

"Could you help me out, Tetsu-kun, Momo-kun is hanging around me all the time and I don't know how to get rid of him," Momoi complained.

Kuroko fought back the smile that was creeping across his lips. He hadn't expected the solution from the problem earlier to fall right into his lap like this.

"I don't know," Kuroko said. "Does he annoy you?"

"A little," Momoi admitted. "He talks a lot,"

Kuroko nodded. "Maybe you should tell him?" He advised.

Momoi nodded but still looked uncertain. "Won't that upset him?" she asked.

"I don't know, I guess he would just go back to Matsuoka-san. She says he used to hang around her all the time," Kuroko explained, thereby not telling Momoi that Gou was a bit jealous, but still getting the important part out.

"How could she stand that?" Momoi asked.

"I don't know,"

Momoi and Kuroko fell silent, the girl looked up at the sky. The sun had nearly set and the moon was visible among a billion stars. She felt like reaching for Kuroko's hand, but something inside of her held her back.

"Maybe I should tell him," Momoi finally said. Kuroko only nodded in response to that and then the two walked back to the others.

The two found everyone else gathered in the gym, dressed up for extra training. Momo waved at Momoi as she and Kuroko entered.

"Satsuki-san! Over here!" he said while waving and smiling widely at her.

Momoi walked up to him and asked to talk to him individually for a minute. Everyone seemed to accept the request and Momoi dragged Momo to the furthest corner of the gym. She spoke to him, but nobody could hear what she said, but Momo obviously got upset about it. As soon as she finished talking the boy nodded and then ran up to Gou.

"Gou-san!" he yelled and stopped right in front of her. "I'm really sorry I got carried off track!" he apologized and everyone could sense that he meant every single word of the short apology.

"It's okay…" Gou trailed off, the hint of a smirk on her face was visible. "…Kintaro-kun?" she asked, causing Momo to nearly hug her while tears appeared at the corners of his eyes.

Haruka and Makoto exchanged looks and smiled, then they both looked at Kuroko, and the phantom-boy could tell that they both knew he had had something to do with all this, but no words needed to be exchanged. There was no need for further information, since the most important thing was that everyone was happy now.

Kisumi then had them start practice, but this time, he mixed up the starting team and the other team. Thereby training everyone's adjustment to having teammates exchanged.

After a final practice before noon the following day everyone thanked both Kuroko and Momoi and then everyone went home with a lot more to think about than when they came on the training camp.


	8. This Is Teamwork

"You're doing great, Rin!" Kisumi said as he passed the ball to Rin and they ran towards the basket.

"You're kidding," Rin answered while dribbling towards the basket and jumping upwards, throwing the ball in the net.

Kisumi laughed. "Says the one who just scored us two more points. How many scorings did you make during this game?" he asked.

Rin thought. He didn't remember the exact number but he had made a lot. It didn't really help that he mixed them up with the scorings of the last game as well.

They were interrupted by Nagisa's loud yelling.

"That's stealing, Haru-chan!" he yelled and Rin and Kisumi watched as Haruka ran forward with the ball. Sousuke was right behind him He had an angry expression on his face as he glared at Haruka. Kisumi ran to the three point line but was quickly trapped by Momo.

Ai ran up and guarded Rin, making sure Haruka couldn't throw a ball to him. Rei ran past everyone to the basket while Nagisa ran up in front of Sousuke and blocked his path by forcing him to stop.

Haruka stopped and watched everyone. Makoto was on the sidelines for this game to make things more even with four against four.

"Haru!" Rin called and tried to run by Ai, but the smaller boy ran in front of him again and stopped the attempt to escape.

"Nanase, damn it!" Sousuke cursed. "You should've let me take the ball!"

"You weren't even close, Yamasaki," Haruka answered. He let his gaze trail between everyone, from Kisumi, to Rin, to Sousuke, to the basket and then back to Kisumi. He was at a loss of what to do.

"Shoot," Kisumi said. "You can't pass yet, so shoot,"

Haruka nodded, though he had turned his gaze towards the basket and took his aim. He ran forward, just a few more steps. Rei stepped forward, preparing to block the attempt to score. He was a bit afraid to defend against Rin because the maroon-haired was a bit violent on the court, but Haruka was much more calm and collected. Normally he didn't need to act on orders because he knew what to do. It was just now that everyone else was blocked. Usually Haruka would just steal the ball and pass. He didn't have the advantage of no presence like Kuroko, he was just good at acting suddenly and as soon as he had trained running, he was actually fast. He was also good at taking in situations.

"I'm not letting you through, Haruka-senpai," Rei said.

Haruka said nothing, he faked a dribble to Rei's right and turned left. Then he scored himself. The thing about faking was something he had done before. He had watched Kisumi do it a couple of times and the others had taken notes of this as well and now it was something all of them could somewhat do. Some fakes were still more obvious than others though.

"That's great, Haru!" Kisumi yelled.

"Yes!" Rin cheered while throwing his fist in the air.

Makoto was amazed that Haruka had been able to pull the shot off. It was almost to the point where his eyes were sparkling.

"Member change!" Gou demanded. "Kisumi-san, you're out, Makoto-senpai, you're on,"

Makoto waited until Kisumi had left the court before entering and the game went on.

Rei made a three point shot. He had gotten really good at making those even though it had taken a lot of time and practice. He hardly ever missed now, but he took almost way too long shooting the ball because he wanted it to be as perfect as possible.

The next one to score was Momo and then Makoto grabbed the ball. He ran a bit forward and faked that he wanted to dribble all the way down, but with a quick exchange of look with Haruka he passed the ball to the other and Haruka was now the one dribbling to the opposite end and passing to Rin, who was free. Everyone had been watching Makoto and hadn't expected the pass.

"Those two really are a powerful weapon," Gou commented, as she watched Makoto and Haruka exchange looks again.

"They sure are," Kisumi answered. "But Rin and Sousuke aren't so bad either," he said. "Especially Rin is good at hitting the basket," Kisumi said.

"Have you planned positions yet?" Gou asked.

"Almost," Kisumi smiled at Gou. "They're difficult to place because they have developed so many skills,"

"Is there anyone you know for sure?" Gou asked.

Kisumi nodded. "I am on shooting guard. So is Rei-kun," he said.

"What about the others?" Gou asked.

"Sousuke and Rin are tying for power forward, but as far as I can tell, Rin is winning," Kisumi said. "Makoto is my best idea of a center, though since Sousuke is taller it would be wiser if he was the center, but I really don't know,"

"What about Haruka-senpai?" Gou asked.

Kisumi smiled. "Haru is still in the dark to me. He has a lot of abilities. What I'm considering is small forward or point guard," he said.

Gou smiled. "It sounds like you have already formed a great team, Kisumi-san,"

Kisumi shrugged. "Perhaps I have," he said.

The game finished shortly after. The starting team had won and nearly doubled the score of the replacing team. Kisumi was proud of everyone. It was time for another game, but this time he had a plan for another setup.

"Okay, we're starting the final game for today. In one week exactly we will be facing Seirin," he said. "I have a plan of having only you guys play a part of the game, just for a short while, and therefore," he looked to Rei. "Rei-kun, you and I will swap teams for this final game since I plan on making you my substitute,"

"M-Me?" Rei asked. He couldn't believe what Kisumi just said. "But Kisumi-san…"

"No buts, Rei-kun," Kisumi said. "The two of us swap teams for now and I plan on having you playing against Seirin just for a short while, no matter what you say, you are the only one who can fill in for me,"

Rei nodded and finally let himself relax. He then pulled the bright yellow shirt, he was wearing over his own t-shirt, over his head and handed it to Kisumi. Kisumi pulled it over his own shirt and Gou started the final game for the day.

It went fine, the gap between the points of each team wasn't as big as before, but the senior team, and now Rei, still won and were extremely happy. Rei had managed to make the final shot, just before time ran out, which caused everyone to hug him tightly, well with Haruka as the only exception to that. All he did was telling Rei that he had done good, and this was precisely what Kisumi told all of them two minutes later.

"I'm glad we have gone this far," he said. "Next week we are up against Seirin and I have a feeling that we will go beyond their expectations. Let's do our best to win,"

Everyone cheered for that and then they left the gym to shower and go home and reflect on today's games.

* * *

 **Flowering Lotus:** **It's okay. You don't have to review all the time. It is nice that you do and I really do appreciate it, a lot in fact. But if you feel pressured to do it for some reason, then just don't. It's okay. I don't want you to feel bad or anything.**

 **Hold your breaths! I think the game is up next!**

 **Jackie**


	9. Let's Go!

**Beforehand I would like to leave an apology to everyone who continue to read from here on, to the end. I am terrible at explaining games when it comes to basketball since I do not get the things visually (or often don't) And when I wrote this, last time I held a ball of any kind was probably at least three years ago. I have never even played basketball in gym class. So what I'm saying is, please bare with me. I'm very sorry if this sucks!**

 **And just to be sure I mentioned it. I had yet to finish the anime of KnB upon writing this. There WILL be incorrect facts in this. I just found myself unable to correct them.**

* * *

"Hey! Over here!" Everyone turned their heads. They had been standing outside Seirin High School, all wondering where to go, but now they noticed Riko who had just called out to them.

"Riko!" Kisumi smiled. "Hey," he walked up to her and stopped in front of her.

"No hand holding?" Riko asked, slightly confused.

Kisumi smiled. "Today we are facing your team in basketball, I'm not gonna do anything like that until afterwards,"

Riko smiled. "Then maybe we should face each other some more," she suggested.

"No way," Kisumi said. "I've got a feeling that I'm not getting any of them to play basketball more than this once,"

"Don't worry," Rin grinned while wrapping an arm around Haruka's shoulder. "I'll convince Haru it's a good idea," he smiled encouraging at Kisumi.

"I'm not gonna do it," Haruka said stubbornly while turning his head away from Rin, causing Makoto to smile at the scene.

"What if we race each other afterwards?" Rin asked.

"I only swim free," was the only response Rin earned from that.

"Haru, you know how boring you are when you're in character?" Rin asked, Haruka didn't respond to this. He didn't care what people, especially Rin, thought about him anyway.

"Let's go," Riko said, interrupting the little conversation. "The game is starting in half an hour you don't have much time to warm up if you just stand around here," she said.

Kisumi nodded. "Okay, let's go!" he said.

The team had arrived in regular clothes so they had to change into gym clothes before they could get started on warming up, so that shortened the time even more, but they managed anyway and were ready to play Seirin's team on time.

Seirin went with the usual starting lineup. This was also what Kisumi had expected. The amateur team went with the planned starting lineup of Kisumi, Haruka, Makoto, Sousuke and Rin. The others were benched for the time being.

"Okay," Kisumi said, just before they were to start. "Please remember we are just here to show that you guys know how to play basketball. We don't need to win so don't push yourselves too hard. Just do your best."

"We want to win," Rin said with an encouraging smile. "If we don't, how do you think we'll look in their eyes. If we don't win, you have lost your bet,"

"That's not-" Kisumi was cut off by Makoto.

"Rin's right, Kisumi. If we don't win, then the bet is lost, and if we lose, I think I'd feel like I've lost the bet as well," He explained.

"We only need to win one game, we should be able to pull it off," Sousuke smiled too.

Haruka just nodded, for once agreeing with everyone, even Sousuke. He even went as far as sending Kisumi a look that emphasized all the points the others had.

"Thanks," Kisumi smiled at all of them. "Good game everyone,"

The game got started. Seirin got the ball first. According to Gou's calculations and information (which she got from Momoi) Team Amateur's average height was actually a bit taller, but Seirin had a bigger variation. And then of course the small detail that two of the players on Seirin's starting lineup were taller than Sousuke. But then again, two of the others in the starting lineup were shorter than Haruka. One of those was Kuroko.

Seirin managed to score first. This was within expectations of course.

"We need to regain those points!" Kisumi yelled as he, Rin and Sousuke ran back across the court. Haruka nodded at Kisumi while receiving the ball from Makoto. He dribbled after the other three while watching out for every player on Seirin's team. He took in the situation. Kagami was on Rin, which could be troublesome. Hyuga was on Kisumi. Makoto was near the net along with Kiyoshi. Haruka wasn't even sure if he could pass the ball that far. Sousuke was free, or so it appeared. Izuki was standing in front of Haruka, and blocking the way over to Sousuke. Kuroko was nowhere to be found for the time being. All these observations were made in less than a second and it only took Haruka another second to plan out what to do.

He looked at Rin and attempted to avoid Izuki by dribbling a few steps closer to Rin. Izuki moved as Haruka couldn't pass to Rin, but that wasn't what Haruka did. He dribbled the other way around Izuki and passed to Sousuke, who was now wide open. Sousuke got the ball, ran forward, shot, and scored their first two points.

"Fine, I admit it," Hyuga said, only looking at Kisumi through the corner of his eye. "I guess you have taught them how to play basketball,"

Kisumi smiled widely. "Of course I have," he said. "We didn't' spend our time doing nothing,"

"I'm mostly impressed by your center and point guard," Hyuga added. "I never thought Tachibana could become that good after seeing him the first time,"

Kisumi nearly laughed, remembering the first time. Makoto had been next to hopeless back then compared to his current abilities. It was true. He sure had improved a lot.

Suddenly the two got other things to think about as Izuki managed to pass the ball to Hyuga. Hyuga stepped back and jumped to make the shot. Kisumi jumped, attempting to reach the ball, but found himself falling back down before he could even scratch it with the tip of his finger.

"You're not so bad yourself, Hyuga," he said as both had landed back down on the floor.

"You shouldn't compare me to the amateurs," Hyuga said as Makoto faked a dribble and passed to Haruka.

Hyuga then turned around and started running for the other end and Kisumi did the same. He felt slightly hurt. He had only tried to complement Hyuga's play but the Seirin shooting guard had interpreted it the wrong way.

The first quarter ended with Team Amateur only four points behind. Riko met up with the Seirin team at their bench.

"There won't be any changes in our plans," she said. "Even if Shigino-kun got a better team than expected we will just continue the way we have until now,"

Everyone on Seirin's team nodded in agreement. There was no reason to make a change of plans.

"Kuroko-kun," Riko said. "Maybe you should guard Matsuoka-kun instead and let Kagami-kun guard Yamasaki-kun, that would be the only change I would suggest since Nanase-kun passes a lot to Yamasaki-kun,"

By the other bench, Kisumi was looking at his team. "We are doing way better than I expected," he said. "Let's keep this up, though, I might want to make the member change before the second quarter is over,"

"I'm not sure if I can do it, Kisumi-san," Rei said, slightly nervous.

Kisumi placed a hand on Rei's shoulder. "Relax, you'll be fine," he said. "At least there is a 99% guarantee that you hit your target and a 100% chance you do it more beautifully than Hyuga," To Kisumi these things didn't matter. But having practiced shooting technique with Rei for the past few months had taught him that there was nothing Rei cared more about than a beautiful form. But this time, it didn't seem to work as well as usual.

"I'm still not sure," Rei said, doubtfully.

"I wasn't sure I could play either," Makoto said. "But I'm managing fine, even if Kiyoshi-kun is better than me by far,"

Kisumi nodded. "It would surprise me if he wasn't. When we were in middle school there was this talk about both the Generation of Miracles and the Uncrowned Kings. If I remember correctly, Kiyoshi Teppei was one of the Uncrowned Kings,"

"What's the difference between the two?" Makoto asked, getting a bit paler than usual.

"The Generation of Miracles are one year below us, while the Uncrowned Kings are on the same year, and I have heard talk about the Generation of Miracles being a bit better than the Uncrowned Kings," Kisumi explained. "Don't be afraid just because you know he's good," he added. "You've done fine until now,"

Haruka placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder to comfort him as well, and maybe that was it, or maybe it was Kisumi's words, or maybe even both, but Makoto got back to normal and nodded with a determined smile on his face.

"You're right," he said. "Thanks,"

The break ended and the second quarter began. On orders from Kisumi, Haruka passed a lot to him. There were a lot of one-on-ones between Hyuga and Kisumi then. The Amateurs caught up to Seirin, if you could call it that when being so little behind, and even overtook them just for a bit. Then, half way through Gou called the member change, and Kisumi was subbed out and replaced by a nervous Rei.

"This is unexpected," Riko mumbled from the sidelines as she watched Kisumi leave the court.

Rei was sending Hyuga nervous looks every now and then before the game got started again. He had spent the entire second quarter, up until now, on observing Hyuga as he knew what he was up against. Kisumi was wearing a proud smile as he prepared to watch Rei play against Hyuga. When Rei noticed this, he wondered if Kisumi had a sadistic side behind the friendliness.

They started again. The first thing Haruka did as soon as he got the ball was passing to Rei. It wasn't like Rei was his only option, but seeing as how nervous Rei was, he knew, if Rei got started the nervousness would completely disappear.

Rei dribbled around Hyuga and prepared to make a shot, but Hyuga was quick, and about to hit the ball as it would fly directly out of Rei's grip. Rei quickly changed his mind, took a small step back as Hyuga just came an inch too short to reach the ball, and then he shot quickly, before anyone had the time to react. He made it perfectly.

"Nice Rei," Rin cheered him on as he ran by. Rei allowed himself to smile proudly. Everything about Kisumi supposedly being a sadist was long forgotten.

* * *

 **Flowering Lotus:** **Thanks for explaining it to me and thanks for the compliment :)**

 **I think I've said enough at the top of this chapter so...This is all for now**

 **Jackie**


	10. The Way We Play

After Rei made his second shot, things started going wrong for The Amateurs. The reason was simple enough and could be explained with only one word, or rather, a name. Kuroko. It was simple as that. Even if Haruka was careful to make sure he knew exactly where Kuroko was, and did his best to avoid him as well as possible, a lot of his passes failed and somehow 70% of them ended up in Kagami's hands.

Fortunately the second quarter ended two minutes later, marking the end of the first half. There would be two more quarters to go.

The Amateur team was all set on the bench, breathing heavily.

"I can't believe we got so confident," Rin said. "We knew it was coming."

Kisumi nodded. "I don't even know how we can stop that duo. We saw them play at Inter High, but I'm still short on ideas,"

They continued to discuss what to do about the matter. Nagisa and Momo made a few terrible suggestions that were either breaking the rules or completely impossible to perform unless you were some kind of super-human. The discussion was interrupted by Haruka.

"Put me on Kuroko," he demanded.

Kisumi looked surprised. It took him five seconds to let Haruka's words sink in, and then he shook his head. "Haru, we can't do that, you're on Izuki, and I-" he was cut off, again by Haruka.

"Put me on Kuroko," he repeated, an irritated glow appeared in his eyes that nobody had ever seen before. The truth was that it bothered Haruka a lot that Kuroko had got almost all his passes. It bothered him even more that this led him to show just how irritated he was with it. He wanted to go swimming to cool his head, but that would be even more impossible, so the only option he had to get rid of his anger, was facing Kuroko.

"Kisumi," Makoto said in a hushed voice, making Kisumi look at him. "Just let him. We are gonna have to sub Sousuke out later on anyway, so when we do that, you can come back and be on Izuki-kun," he said, trying to convince Kisumi. It worked.

"Fine," Kisumi said. "Haru, you're on Kuroko, Sousuke, you're on Izuki until half way through the third quarter," he said.

Everyone nodded, agreeing to that. By then the break ended and the second half was about to start. As the teams went back on the court again Makoto walked up by Kuroko's side.

"I don't know what you did, but I've never seen Haru so angry before," he said to the much smaller player.

Kuroko looked confused up. "Is Nanase-san angry?" he asked in wonder. To him it was difficult to imagine, just like it was to everyone else who knew Haruka.

Makoto smiled. "I've known Haru for as long as I can remember," he explained. "In all that time he has rarely shown any emotion, and those he express are not something he let anyone see. I doubt his parents has ever seen it either,"

Kuroko nodded. Now he wondered too what he did, but he had a slight idea, so it wasn't that difficult to come up with guesses.

The game got started, and Haruka was on Kuroko as he had requested. Kuroko could sense the unusual aura around Haruka. It made the air around them feel slightly heavy. He continued to do what he did best and Haruka did his best to avoid Kuroko.

For a while things worked out. They got more of their passes through and managed to score some more, and gain on Seirin. But then Izuki began to steal the ball from Haruka whenever he made it past Kuroko and the other players became more dangerous as well.

It was right on that time the member change was made. Sousuke was worn out and Kisumi was back at full energy.

Things went better again because the rest of Seirin's team became a bit more under control. Haruka was still worked a bit up though. He played his best but his abilities dropped slowly as his emotions got stronger. It was nothing new, but he wasn't exactly aware of this matter. At least not until Rin pointed it out to him.

"Haru," he said as he ran by after a failed pass from Haruka. "Calm down, it's not like you to get worked up like this,"

Haruka blinked.

Rin ran up to Kagami and attempted to get the ball, but Kagami jumped and shot before he could reach it. He ran back to Haruka.

"Haru, you need to calm down. You played way better in the first half," he stated.

Haruka stopped. He blinked again and then he nodded. Surprisingly enough, that was all it took to have him calm down again. He nodded at Rin.

"Thanks Rin," he told him before running off.

He did it without saying a word. It was suddenly when Izuki ran across the court with the ball that Haruka stepped up to guard him. He sent Kisumi a quick look at the same time, and Kisumi went to guard Kuroko instead. That was about the biggest proof that Haruka had gone back to normal.

The rest of the game was played. The Amateurs continued to gain a few points every now and then, but it was not enough to completely catch up to Seirin by the end of the game. It was only enough to be 4 points behind, just like when they had finished the first quarter.

* * *

 **I intentionally let the Amateur team lose because, let's just face it, it would be unrealistic if they actually won against Seirin of all teams. Plus, it would destroy Seirin's impression for the next long while. I really hope it's okay.**

 **Again I will want to apologize for my poor game explainations so well... sorry about them.**

 **Aside from that, I just counted. Seems there are only three chapters left. I hope you've enjoyed it until now and will continue to stick with the story until it's done.**

 **Jackie**


	11. Another Challenge

"I admit it," Hyuga said. "You can actually teach someone how to play basketball," He and Kisumi were standing around the center of the court, minutes after the game had ended.

Kisumi smiled. "Thanks for the compliment, Hyuga," he said.

"We did great!" Rin said, he wrapped an arm around Kisumi's shoulder and Kisumi wrapped one around Rin's. Both boys smiled happily. Even if they had lost, they had managed to do this good against Seirin. It was really something worth being proud of.

"It was a good game," Hyuga agreed.

Riko made her way up to them. "Shigino-kun, what was it that everyone did?" she asked. "I don't remember,"

Rin smiled at Riko, charmingly. "We're all swimmers," he said. "We'd actually like a rematch. All nine of us players against nine of yours?" he suggested.

"In what?" Riko asked concerned.

"Swimming!" Rin said like it was obvious, which it probably was.

Riko thought it over for a bit. "In what part of swimming can you even be that many?" she asked. "I thought it was an individual sport?"

Rin nodded. "Sometimes it is, but in relays, you are parted in teams of four," he continued.

Makoto and Haruka silently joined up with them at this point.

"All we watched was the Medley Relay, is there a difference?" Hyuga asked, concerned. He had noticed that during each round of the relay they had been swimming different styles, and he wasn't sure he could perform all four of them, or any of his team could.

"There is," Makoto smiled kindly. "In medley relays you take turn swimming a specific style that you specialize in, like I swim the backstroke. In an ordinary relay you choose whichever style you want, usually people do freestyle because it is the fastest," He looked to Rin. "Why are you guys even talking about relays?" he asked.

Rin smiled. "I figured it would be nice to challenge them in what we are good at," he said.

Makoto looked unsure about the matter. "We could do so, but then we should just do an ordinary relay and not medley, I'm sure none of them can perform the butterfly stroke,"

"We can learn that!" Hyuga stated.

Rin shook his head. "Not without a teacher. The only one who has ever performed the butterfly stroke to almost perfection without a teacher, is Rei," He nodded in Rei's direction. "It is the toughest stroke of them all. It is also difficult to do,"

"I think we can do it," Hyuga said.

"You're not gonna," Riko interrupted the conversation with a stubborn expression. "We don't have the time for you go learn that. We have to train for the Winter Cup, I would like to finish these get-togethers today, at least at sports,"

"Then we will have two turns," Rin said. "One of an ordinary relay and one of a medley relay where we lend you guys one of the three butterfly swimmers we have to offer, all of us will have to swim, but you can chose whoever you think can do it the best,"

Kisumi looked skeptically at Rin. "You know I'm not a swimmer,"

"That's their advantage," Rin said. "We give them a fair chance of winning,"

"What would you rather swim, Haru?" Makoto asked. "The relay or the medley?"

"I only swim free," Haruka said.

Makoto laughed. "Of course you do," he said.

The agreement on teams for the swimmers was easy enough. Since they were only allowed to swim once each and had to lend one, they decided quickly. Rei, Nagisa, Momo and Ai were on the relay team, Rin decided to lend himself to the basketball players as their butterfly swimmer, and that left the last team as Haruka, Makoto, Sousuke and a much less confident Kisumi.

"You can swim, can't you?" Makoto asked concerned as he looked to Kisumi after the teams were decided.

Kisumi nodded. "I can swim fine," he said. "But I'm not that good at swimming like you guys,"

Makoto smiled. "What styles can you swim?" he asked. "Haru is gonna go with free. If not, I'm afraid he won't even want to swim, and Sousuke got butterfly,"

"So that leaves the breaststroke and the backstroke," Kisumi said. He knew a little of swimming thanks to Makoto, from their time during middle school.

"It depends on whichever you find yourself better at," Makoto said.

Kisumi nodded, and thought for a bit. "I'm better at the backstroke I think," he said.

Makoto smiled in response to that. "Then I guess things are decided," he said, being happy with how things turned out. He wouldn't tell Kisumi, but he did prefer the backstroke over the others, but if Kisumi wanted the backstroke, it was fine with him. It wasn't like he couldn't perform the breaststroke. After all he had done that before he learned the backstroke.

"Excuse me," Kuroko said. Makoto and Kisumi both jumped. They didn't hear him coming. "We need help deciding what we're gonna swim,"

"Didn't Rin come over?" Makoto asked.

"Matsuoka-san says we should get one of you," Kuroko said.

Makoto looked around, unsure of who would be the best to help out, this was stopped when Kisumi placed a hand on his shoulder. "You should go," he said. "I'm confident you can help them,"

Makoto shook his head and hesitated but Kisumi pushed him up on his feet.

"You taught me all I know about swimming and you helped Hayato get rid of his fear, you might even be able to help them further if they need it," he encouraged.

Makoto looked skeptically at Kisumi, but then decided there was nothing he could do and went with Kuroko to help the Seirin basketball team.


	12. The Phantom of the Pool

A short amount of time had passed. It had only been two hours since the challenge and now Gou and Riko found themselves standing by the pool, each holding a stopwatch to note the time of the swimming teams. The boys from Seirin were nervous while the much more professional swimmers were completely relaxed. Haruka looked like he was actually looking forward to jumping into the pool.

"The first relay will now begin," Gou announced. "First swimmers, please move to the starting block," she said.

"What are we supposed to do again?" Hyuga asked nervously as he got ready to start. He looked at Rin who was standing next to him.

"Didn't you listen when Makoto explained?" Rin asked.

"I did," Hyuga nodded. "I was just too nervous so I forgot everything he said,"

"In this round you just swim whatever style you want," Rin explained one final time. "If you feel more confident in the breaststroke for example, you just do that. The others will either adjust to you or just swim freestyle,"

"You done explaining, nii-chan?" Gou asked.

"Yeah," Rin answered.

Gou signaled for both teams to start, and so they did. Seirin's team did really good against the professional swimmers, but of course they lost.

"Okay," Rin called. "Next up is the medley," he told the basketball players. "Who was it we agreed on, Hyuga, Kagami and Kuroko?" At this point he started looking for Kuroko, but couldn't seem to find him anywhere among the other basketball players.

"Quit hiding," Kagami said, pulled Kuroko out from behind Kiyoshi where he had been hiding, using his misdirection to make Rin completely unable to notice him. "Why are you hiding there anyway?" Kagami continued.

"I can't swim," Kuroko said. "At least not that well,"

Makoto heard this and turned around in like a whirlwind. "You didn't say that, Kuroko-kun,"

"I didn't expect to be put on a team," Kuroko said.

"You mean, you hoped we would forget about you," Kagami said. "Idiot," he took the liberty to add.

"I'm sorry," Kuroko said.

"The only one you need to apologize to is yourself," Kagami said. He then looked at Rin. "What do we do?"

"All we can do is change the order as it will go as well as possible," Rin said. "Can you do any kind of swimming, Kuroko?"

Kuroko thought long and hard about the matter. "I don't know…" he said.

"What do you normally do if you really have to swim?" Rin asked. This was his best idea to have Kuroko come up with something.

Kuroko moved his arms in what looked like a terrible breaststroke and Rin nodded.

"Gou, give us ten minutes," he said. "Ai, come with me and Kuroko for a while,"

"Yes Senpai," Ai exclaimed before following Rin and Kuroko to a corner where they began instructing the Seirin player on how to do a breaststroke that could keep him above the surface all the way. They returned the ten minutes later and lined up. Hyuga would start again. He was swimming the backstroke, just like Kisumi who didn't look too sure about things.

"Why is it that we always end up against each other?" Kisumi asked as friendly as possible without taking it too far.

"I don't know," Hyuga said. "But it's annoying,"

Kuroko was swimming the breaststroke, and so was Makoto. Rin and Sousuke were betting on who would make it first, Sousuke, who would most likely get a head start, or Rin who believed he had gotten faster than Sousuke since the last time. Kagami and Haruka were last.

Gou got the medley relay started. Kisumi and Hyuga jumped in the exact same time and started swimming. It didn't come as much of a shock to anyone that they were even. They were swimming side by side all the way. Even after the turn nothing changed and they made it back in the same time.

Makoto was a little quicker to jump than Kuroko and made it a little further into the pool because of his much taller body.

Makoto could still sense it down below him. The monster he had always feared. This was the reason why he preferred the backstroke rather than the others. He could still do them of course, but he still remembered how the monster used to be down at the bottom of the pool, or the ocean or whatever else.

Around the turn it started changing though. Makoto didn't notice what the exact change was before the turn, but it was clear after the turn what had happened. It didn't feel like the monster was below him anymore. It felt more like it was coming from behind. He started swimming faster in an attempt to get away from whatever it was and he felt as the distance was created, but he still sensed the monster behind him.

When Makoto reached the starting point and touched the wall, he couldn't get out of the pool fast enough and was practically trembling as he got back up on the poolside. Sousuke had already taken off but Rin, Haruka and Kisumi were all surprised to see Makoto like this.

Around this time, Kuroko slowly made it in as well and climbed out of the pool, he was just as much out of breath as Makoto and Rin took off.

"I've never seen you swim that fast before, Mako-chan," Nagisa said as he too came over.

"What happened?" Kagami asked he had never expected to see a swimmer flea the water like that.

"You were even quicker to get out of the pool than Rin-chan was the first time we raced," Nagisa stated.

Makoto looked over his shoulder to the bottom of the pool. "I-It's nothing," he lied. "I'm fine,"

Haruka narrowed his eyes. "You're not," he said.

"Sousuke is coming back, Haruka-senpai," Gou announced. "He's about half way,"

Haruka didn't react. He kept on looking at Makoto who was obviously terrified and Haruka had a pretty good idea that something had happened while he raced Kuroko that terrified Makoto. He was also almost certain that it had something to do with Makoto's old fear of water.

"I thought you said it was over," he said.

Makoto blinked, but then nodded. "Not completely. When I can't look up it's still there,"

Sousuke returned and climbed out of the water. Rin was closing in on the finish line too. They had kept the same gap between them all the way, though Rin had gained a bit on Sousuke after the turn.

"Get started, Nanase," Sousuke demanded, but Haruka didn't react.

"What are you talking about?" Kuroko asked. "What isn't over?"

Rin reached the wall then and Kagami jumped.

"What's going on?" Rin said, when he noticed Haruka hadn't started yet.

"Haru, it'll be fine," Makoto said. "Go swim,"

Haruka send Makoto a look, asking him if he was really sure about this, to which Makoto nodded, before Haruka jumped into the pool and started swimming his beloved freestyle. Kagami was a bit ahead, but Haruka was faster and gaining on him.

Back on the poolside Nagisa filled Rin in on the situation and Makoto ended up having to explain his fear of water to Seirin's team.

"I guess I felt as if something threatening was coming from behind…" Makoto said with a sheepish smile on his face. "I'm sorry I had you all worry,"

"Maybe you should apologize to Haru-chan when he returns," Nagisa advised.

Makoto nodded. "Of course,"

"I'm sorry," Kuroko then interrupted. "The presence you sensed behind you was probably mine," he said. "I don't have that much presence so I'm surprised you could react to me in that way, Tachibana-san,"

Makoto nodded. "That does make sense," he said. "I'm sorry, Kuroko-kun,"

Kuroko just shrugged it off and said it was no problem as Haruka touched the wall, followed by Kagami, two stroke's time later.

"Amazing!" Gou cheered. "If you become faster than this you could probably beat nii-chan, Kagami-kun," she exclaimed.

Kagami climbed out of the pool, completely out of breath while Makoto did the usual and reached down his hand to pull Haruka out of the pool.

"You okay?" Haruka asked.

"I'm fine," Makoto answered. "I'm sorry to make you worry,"

Haruka said nothing. He just shrugged it off.

"It's now one, one," Riko announced. "Who want a third challenge?"

"A muscle contest!" Gou cheered.

All the boys exchanged looks and all of them knew, just then, that no matter what the girls decided they would do, they were not gonna take part in it. Therefore they just headed to the changing rooms to shower and get dressed.

* * *

 **Yup, boys better run for their lives.**

 **I'm sorry for the late update. I was at school until 6 today and couldn't make it to my laptop until now. I'm so so sorry, it won't happen again! (By again I mean tomorrow since it is then the last chapter will be up)**

 **I'll see you then!**

 **Jackie**


	13. I love What I Do

All the boys were gathered in the changing room. There wasn't really much space for anyone so for things to go as well as possible, everyone respected that everyone needed space. There was no complains of anyone taking up too much space.

"You had a great race against Haru," Rin told Kagami as both of them got rid of their swimsuits and prepared to head for the showers.

"Thanks I guess," Kagami shrugged. He didn't really care.

"I'd like to race you too, someday," Rin added as he was about to stuff his bag into the locker room to protect his belonging. Not like he suspected anyone would steal his money or phone or something, it was just in case, and out of habit. As he did so though, he felt his phone start buzzing and took it up to see what was up. He'd got a text from Gou. "Guys!" he called. "The girls tell us to wash ourselves off well, we're going out for dinner after this,"

"And who's gonna pay that?" Sousuke asked.

"The ones who suggested it, I say," Kagami mumbled.

Hyuga headed to the showers around this. Kisumi was already out there and so were Haruka, Makoto, and a few players from Seirin's team. There was only one free shower, and that was next to Kisumi.

"They're talking about eating out after this," Hyuga said, not to Kisumi in particular, but since his shower was in a corner, there wasn't really anyone else who could hear it.

"The girls?" Kisumi asked.

Hyuga nodded. "They recommend we wash ourselves,"

Kisumi picked up the shampoo at his feet. "I was planning on doing that anyway," he said.

Hyuga felt his cheeks heat up a bit as he turned to Kisumi. It didn't help the awkwardness in this that he had to ask this question. He didn't even like Kisumi that much.

"Shigino…" Hyuga trailed off, but Kisumi looked at him demanding to know what he wanted to ask. "I didn't bring any shampoo so could I… lend yours?"

Kisumi smiled as friendly as ever and handed it over. "Sure," he said and Hyuga took the shampoo and lend just enough for himself to wash off.

"Thanks…" he didn't look at Kisumi for a few seconds, but then decided that the ice between them had been broken, and then he asked a question that had been bugging him for some time.

"What school do you even play for?" he asked. "I haven't seen you at tournaments,"

"No top school," Kisumi answered. "We don't even have a team anymore," he said. He looked kinda distant as he let the last part slip.

"You don't play basketball anymore?" Hyuga was surprised to hear that.

Kisumi shook his head and picked up his shampoo and turned off the water. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now," he said. "Sorry, Hyuga," then he left, and grabbed his towel on the way out.

* * *

They went to a sushi restaurant afterwards. It was a cheap place with enough space for all of them to sit together by one long table. None of the boys could believe the place had a table with room for so many.

Once again Hyuga and Kisumi had ended up next to each other and Hyuga had gotten the determination to confront Kisumi about what he had refused to talk about earlier.

"Say, Shigino-kun, why don't you play basketball anymore?" Hyuga asked, making sure to be direct. He met Kisumi's shocked, purple eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it," Kisumi said, looking away.

"I don't understand," Kuroko said. He was sitting on the other side of Kisumi and of course also heard Hyuga's question. "You look like you're having fun, and you're good at basketball too,"

"Actually," Makoto butted in from the other side of the table. "That is something I haven't heard the details of either. What exactly happened at your school?"

Kisumi could sense the pressure from everyone. He could sense there was no way around this and that he had to tell them everything that happened.

"Okay," he said. "I'll begin with the beginning, it'll be a long story," he warned before he took in a deep breath and got started. "I started playing basketball at middle school. I liked the sport from the very first moment and even if we were beaten early in the middle school tournaments every year, I still found it fun to play. This continued in high school. I joined the basketball team there as well and we did well on our first year. We didn't make it to Inter High, but I was fine with it, and it seemed everyone else were too. When we got our second chance in the Winter Cup and failed, it was fine too. Though some of us were a bit moody about it. It was mostly those from my own year, and when the second years came, not a single one of them really wanted to play basketball anymore because they had been up against Teiko's team. I tried to encourage them, but nobody would listen. We still had enough on the team to try participating in Inter High again, but we were beaten before things even got started," Kisumi drank a bit of his soda before continuing. "When it became clear to everyone that the Winter Cup wasn't even within reach, most quit. This included our third years, and most from my own year. In the end, even the captain quit early and before I realized it, I was the last one standing," Kisumi's gaze fixated on the last remaining sushi on his plate. He could feel the tears burning behind his eyes but he refused to cry about it, it wasn't worth it. "Since the team couldn't go on like that, I shut it down for the year, hoping more would join up at spring. But nobody were up for it,"

Hyuga was surprised. He was shocked to hear how little it could take to shut a school team down completely.

"Why didn't you join up with another team somewhere?" he asked.

Kisumi looked. "I tried that after it became clear to me that there won't ever be a basketball team on my school again, but when I mentioned where I came from, they all denied me. I guess my school really got a bad reputation when it comes to basketball,"

"Were you ever up against those good teams in middle school?" Makoto asked. "What'd you call them, Uncrowned… Kings and… Generation of Miracles?"

Kisumi nodded. "On our first year we were beaten by a team with one of the Uncrowned Kings on it in the very first round. On our second year it was the Generation of Miracles in the second round. I think that's the worst game I ever played, their Small Forward wasn't a fun opponent." (Reference to Haizaki)

"What about your third year?" Hyuga asked. "Were you up against any of them then?"

"Didn't get the chance," Kisumi smiled. "On our third attempt we were beaten by some team from… Meiko I think. One of my best games after the one today if I may say so," Kisumi drank a bit more of the soda.

"Shigino-kun," Kuroko said almost out of the blue. "Do you still like basketball after all this?" he asked.

Kisumi blinked at Kuroko. "Of course I do," he said. "My love for it, might be the exact thing that kept me going through all this,"

Kuroko smiled at Kisumi. He was impressed by this. Almost everyone the Generation of Miracles had played had lost their love for basketball. It was a miracle that there were still people like Kisumi somewhere in this world.

"I'm actually willing to bet I love basketball just as much as Haru loves swimming," Kisumi grinned.

Rin laughed. "Hey, Haru and I are gonna become professional swimmers and participate in the Olympics. You sure you're gonna go that far, Kisu-chan?" The addition of the name was a way to tease Kisumi.

"Don't call me that, Rin," Kisumi said. "I don't know if I'll take it that far, but I think I'll play basketball in my spare time until I die,"

"Just call him Rinrin," Nagisa yelled from the other end of the table. He had heard the teasing with the names.

"Say… what are your future plans, Kisumi?" Makoto asked.

"For starters I'm gonna go to a university in Tokyo," Kisumi said.

They started discussing universities and Kisumi learned that he, Hyuga and Riko were all going to the same university.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and after another hour with just chatting at the sushi restaurant everyone decided it was time to head home. Hyuga and Riko walked the swimmers, Kisumi and Gou to the nearest station before they headed home though.

"So…" Hyuga spoke up, looking at Kisumi. "Once we start on university this spring, would you consider joining a basketball team with me? Or start one if there isn't any?"

Kisumi turned his head to meet Hyuga's eyes, trying to tell if he was serious or not, when he came to the conclusion that he was dead serious about it, his face broke into a wide, friendly smile. "Since you're the one asking, I'm not gonna turn down the offer," he said.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Hyuga asked. He raised his voice a bit, but he wasn't angry and Kisumi knew that. He just started laughing at Hyuga.

The rest of the way to the station the two discussed what to do and how they would get started on their new team the next spring and when they parted ways, both of them found themselves looking forward to playing basketball on the same team the next time they saw each other.

* * *

 **This is the end. Thanks for sticking with this story until this. I am very grateful to everyone who have read it. I honestly didn't expect a single one would want to read it. I have performed much better work than this.**

 **I have written other stories both for KnB and Free and a oneshot crossover for the two. I won't be active for a while because I have to finish the story I am working on and I don't know how long that'll take, but I'm almost there, so hopefully it won't be too long before you hear from me again.**

 **Once again thanks for reading and especially thanks to Flowering Lotus who left so many reviews and favorited**

 **Also thanks to surveycorps who also favorited this story. **

**With that being said, I admit I have to agree with the title of this chapter. I too love what I'm doing right now.**

 **I hope you'll read more of my stories. Thanks for now.**

 **Jackie**


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